ANSWER: Then it's up to YOU to find the Book that God was talking about in Psalm 12:6,7 and Jesus was talking about in Matthew 24:35.

I learned a great lesson in the late 1960's. I watched on television as riotous hippies burned down the Bank of America offices. Other rioters razed entire neighborhoods to the chant of "Burn, Baby, Burn." The hippies' claim was that they had to burn this country to the ground in order to build a new one. And THAT is what I learned: ANY hippie can burn down a building, but I've NEVER seen even one building that a hippie built.

The cruel truth is that when you become a rebel against authority, such as the hippies were, you become an EXPERT in the art of destruction (II Peter 2:9-15). A life committed to destroying is difficult to reverse. Thus, hippies know how to destroy buildings which were built by others. But they cannot build anything in a productive manner that improves on what they destroyed.

This rebellious hatred for AUTHORITY is also manifested in the rabid attacks on the Holy Bible by self-proclaimed scholars. They can wax eloquent in their destructive criticism of God's perfect Book. Then after reducing it to ashes in the hearts and minds of students and church members, are unable to replace it with anything that even compares with the divine writings they have so viciously attacked.

If you have been convinced by some spiritual hippie that the King James Bible has mistakes in it, then I suggest you ask them to REPLACE it with a Bible that is perfect.

They may point to the New International Version, or New American Standard Version, or New King James Version as a "better translation." But no one will DARE to claim that any of these are the Bible referred to in Psalm 12:6,7 or Matthew 24:35.

If you press the issue they will most likely run you through the brambles and briers of the claim that God's Word is found only in "the Greek." But the fact is that their very limited knowledge of the original languages leaves them unable to read, study or preach from either Hebrew or Greek. Even if they COULD translate either the Textus Receptus or the local Egyptian text of Alexandria literally, they would be forced to admit that there are readings in both that they cannot accept as infallible.

The FACT is, that, like their hippie counterparts of the late 1960's they find themselves standing on a pile of smoldering ruins, without any ability whatsoever to rebuild even an outhouse, let alone render a perfect Bible.

No, if you have been convinced by someone that the King James Bible has errors IN SPITE of the facts, then you have accepted that thesis for only one reason; your love for and loyalty to the Bible's antagonist. The critic is your father, brother, pastor, youth director, college professor, or just someone you love too much to confront or withstand on the Bible issue.

So, if you have been convinced by someone that the Authorized Version has mistakes in it, you should toss your King James Bible into the wastebasket on top of your NIV, NASV, NKJV and both of the Greek texts. Then go to that person, fall on your knees, kiss their ring and say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. " Galatians 1:8

QUESTION: The Textus Receptus didn't appear until 1633 so how can the King James Bible, which was translated in 1611, be translated from it?

ANSWER: Wrong.

EXPLANATION: The Greek text which was used for the translation of the King James Bible extends back through history to the pens of Moses, David, Paul, John and the other inspired writers. Throughout history it has been known by a variety of names. Over the years the Greek text of the New Testament was collated by a number of different editors. The most famous of these were Desiderius Erasmus, Theodore Beza, Robert Stephanus and the Elzevir brothers, Abraham and Bonaventure.

A part of page 336 of Erasmus's Greek Testament, the first "Textus Receptus." Shown is a portion of John 18.

Erasmus published five editions of the New Testament The first in 1516 was followed by another in 1519 which was used by Martin Luther for his historic and earth-shaking German translation. His third, fourth, and fifth followed in 1522, 1527 and 1535. Erasmus ' work was magnificent and set the standard for centuries to come.

Robert Stephanus published four editions, dating from 1546 through 1549, 1550 and lastly 1551. Theodore Beza published several editions of the Greek New Testament.

Four were published in 1565, 1582, 1588 and 1598. These were printed in folio, meaning a sheet of paper was folded over once, thus producing four separate pages of the book. He also published five octavo editions, these dates being; 1565,1567,1580,1590 and 1604. "Octavo" means that one printed sheet folded in such a way as to produce eight separate pages of the text. Books printed in this manner tended to have a smaller page size than folio works, but sometimes led to the need of a work being printed in two or more volumes. It is Beza's edition of 1598 and Stephanus's edition of 1550 and 1551 which were used as the primary sources by the King James translators.

Desiderius Erasmus

Some years later, the Elzevir brothers published three editions of the Greek New Testament. The dates being; 1624, 1633 and 1641. They followed closely the work of Beza, who in turn had followed the standard set by Erasmus. In the preface to their edition of 1633 they coined a phrase which was to become so popular as to be retrofitted to texts which preceded it by many years. They stated in Latin "textum ergo habes, nunc ab omnibus receptum..." i.e. "According to the text now held from the volume received..." Thus the title "Textus Receptus" or "Received Text" was born.

So we see that, even though the name "Textus Receptus was coined twenty-two years after the Authorized Version was translated, it has become synonymous with the true Greek Text originating in Antioch.

This article, written by Dr. Sam Gipp, was used by permission of the author.Click here to visit Dr. Gipp's website....

Dr. Gipp is a former pastor, an evangelist, teacher, author and Bible conference speaker. He has the unique ability to digest large amounts of information and then present it in an analytical, understandable, format. His humerous, informative and forceful preaching style make him popular with all ages and keeps him in demand as a Revivalist and Bible conference speaker. Brother Gipp was apart of a panel of defenders of the King James Bible on the "John Ankerberg Show." Also, his life's story was featured on the national radio program, "Unshackled."